Anti-Drone System Shoots Streamers Into Propellers

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

DARPA has finished work on an anti-drone system that can shoot strings of streamers into the propellers of threatening drones, causing them to fall from the sky, reports C4ISRNET, and is looking to transfer the technology to a program of record. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Mobile Force Protection program is designed to defeat drone intrusions over military installations and convoys using small unmanned aircraft.

Current rules allow federal agencies to rehire former employees with a streamlined process at the pay grade level they held when they left federal service. As of July 8, 2021, federal agencies can offer higher pay grades that account for skills, knowledge, and experience gained outside of the federal workforce, reports FCW.

Veterans Affairs officials are asking for $270 billion in funding next fiscal year, but it’s billions more in potential spending that raised questions among some lawmakers, reports Military Times. All together, the plans could push total department spending well above $300 billion, even as the number of veterans in America has steadily declined over the last decade.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks on its members could trigger an alliance response, reports USNI. Several years ago, NATO agreed cyberattacks needed to be regarded in the same light as a military land, air, or sea assault on a member and could set off a collective response based on NATO’s Article 5 response.

The US still does not know what or who is causing the suspected “directed” radio frequency attacks on US diplomats that resulted in various neurological ailments known as “Havana syndrome,” reports Reuters. SecState Antony Blinken says a government-wide review is working on it.

The US Government Accountability Office has found the acquisition approach of many weapon programs could result in cost and schedule challenges, which has kept the DoD weapon system acquisition remaining on the High-Risk List for more than two decades, reports UPI.

The Pentagon’s top military command in the Asia-Pacific region is asking Congress to add nearly a billion dollars to its budget request to strengthen missile defenses, bolster American allies and partners in the region, and to look at more robust forward bases for US troops to prepare for a possible military contingency in the region, reports Foreign Policy.com.

Business Insider describes the Kazan, Russia’s first Yasen-M-class nuclear-powered guided missile submarine that worries the US Navy.

 

The Navy has awarded a $149 million contract to Halter Marine for the completion of a modified Pathfinder-class oceanographic research ship for the Military Sealift Command, reports Seapower Magazine. Six Pathfinder-class ships were delivered from 1994 to 2001 to operate in an oceanographic survey-support capacity, gathering underwater data in the deep ocean and coastal waters. A seventh, the USNS Maury, was delivered in February 2016.

Thousands of active-duty and National Guard troops called up to serve at COVID-19 mass vaccination sites earlier this year have headed and will continue to head home, as the number of sites has dwindled from 35 to eight, reports Military Times.

The Navy may have to pick just one of three major modernization programs to fund — pursuing a new destroyer, a new attack submarine, or a new fighter jet, according to acting NavSec Thomas Harker. The other two would be postponed due to budget limitations, reports Defense News.

The head of an American Legion post in Ohio has stepped down following the premeditated decision of Memorial Day ceremony organizers to turn off retired US Army LT COL Barnard Kemter’s microphone while he was speaking about how freed Black slaves honored fallen soldiers just after the Civil War, reports Military Times. American Legion leaders in Ohio also suspended the post’s charter and are taking steps to close it.

Cameron Kinley, the Naval Academy’s 2021 class president and Midshipmen cornerback, was signed as an undrafted free agent for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, reports Navy Times. But unlike four other academy graduates of the class of 2021 chasing spots on NFL rosters, the Navy denied Kinley’s waiver request to postpone his looming five-year service window. The Seahawks signed West Point grad Jon Rhattigan, while the Broncos, Rams, and Jets signed Air Force graduates Nolan Laufenberg, George Silvanic, and Parker Ferguson, respectively.

An MQ-9 suffered a catastrophic fuel leak while flying in an undisclosed area of Africa, prompting the crew to crash the Reaper as hard as possible into the ground to avoid a successful recovery of the aircraft, reports Air Force Magazine.

Erik Santos, 51, of Braselton, GA, has been sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $11.8 million in restitution to Tricare for his role in a massive health care fraud scheme.

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig plans to continue the agency’s multi-year IT modernization plan with some of a $305 million funding request in the Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 budget proposal, reports FWC. Rettig said he wants to improve services for taxpayers nationwide, including those in underserved communities.

Contracts:

Precise Systems Inc., Lexington Park, Maryland, is awarded an $83,196,677 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-reimbursable indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract provides management and technical support services for the operation, development, sustainment, training and management of the acquisition management system suite of software applications that provide both acquisition management and acquisition data in support of the Acquisition Tools and Processes Program. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland, and is expected to be completed in June 2026. No funds will be obligated at time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0042121D0025).

Stell Environmental Enterprises Inc., Exton, Pennsylvania (W91278-21-D-0061); Cardno-EA JV, Charlottesville, Virginia (W91278-21-D-0053); HDR Envr, Ops and Construction Inc., Englewood, Colorado (W91278-21-D-0054); Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Dallas, Texas (W91278-21-D-0055); PHE-Baker JV2 LLC, Rockville, Maryland (W91278-21-D-0056); ACT Services LLC, Columbia, Maryland (W91278-21-D-0057); PHE-Baker JV2 LLC, Rockville, Maryland (W91278-21-D-0059); SERES-ARCADIS SB JV2 LLC, Charleston, South Carolina (W91278-21-D-0060); MSE Group LLC, San Antonio, Texas (W91278-21-D-0058); and AECOM Technical Services Inc., Los Angeles, California (W91278-21-D-0052), will compete for each order of the $249,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architect and engineering services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 25 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of June 8, 2026. US Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile, Alabama, is the contracting activity. 

Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Virginia (N00189-18-D-Z067); CACI, Inc. – Federal, Chantilly, Virginia (N00189-18-D-Z068); Science Application International Corp., Reston, Virginia (N00189-18-D-Z069); Capstone Corp., Alexandria, Virginia (N00189-18-D-Z070); and Serco Inc., Herndon, Virginia (N00189-18-D-Z071), are awarded an estimated $109,814,821 via modification (P00004) to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award contract program that included terms and conditions for the placement of both cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price task orders to provide technical support services for functions such as chief information officer strategic support; data and information management; engineering support; information technology system support; network support; information assurance/cyber security; enterprise business intelligence/enterprise business analytics; software analysis; hardware maintenance and development; and business process reengineering in support of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Navy Personnel Command, the Navy Manpower Analysis Center, Commander Naval Education and Training, and Commander Navy Recruiting Command. This modification exercises the three-year option ordering period that will bring the estimated contract ceiling price to $213,170,626. The contracts run concurrently and the ordering period is expected to begin in September 2021 and be completed by September 2024. Work will be performed in Millington, Tennessee (45%); Pensacola, Florida (27%); Arlington, Virginia (10%); various locations throughout the continental US (16%); and various contractor facilities (2%). No funding will be obligated at time of award. Operation and maintenance (Navy) funds will fund individual task orders with appropriate fiscal year appropriations at the time of their issuance. This contract was competitively procured for the award of multiple contracts pursuant to the authority set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulation 16.504, with 15 offers received. Naval Supply Systems Command, Fleet Logistics Center, Norfolk Contracting Department, Philadelphia Office, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity.